UPDATE (5:50 p.m.): Ah, now that he’s confirmed, the irrepressible Frank O’Donnell of Clean Air Watch can re-emerge to criticize him: “We hope that he won’t be an impediment, based on his past emphasis on cost-benefit analysis to the exclusion of other values. We hope he will look at other values, such as protecting the environment.”

Early on it was the left-leaning “consumer activist” and environmental groups who criticized Sunstein because he has written favorably on cost-benefit analysis. But they had been largely quiet since Glenn Beck took up his television cudgel against Sunstein based — loosely based — on his writings on animal rights and the Second Amendment.

UPDATE (6 p.m.): Ah, more warm greetings from the left now that Sunstein’s been confirmed, this from an early and harsh critic, Rena I. Steinzor, a Maryland law professor and president of the Center for Progressive Reform. She writes at The Pump Handle blog, attacking the OIRA in a post:

We look forward to working with Cass Sunstein. And we also promise to stay in his face, making sure he remembers that his biggest challenge is to revive strong government protection of environmental quality, food, drug, and worker safety, and the control of climate change, not working to appease industry. We wish him luck and success.